Oak leaf cluster - Citizendia

Silver and bronze oak leaf clusters

An oak leaf cluster or oakleaves is a common device which is placed on U.S. military awards and decorations (and those of some other nations) to denote those who have received more than one bestowal of a particular decoration. The United States Armed Forces are the overall unified military forces of the United States The number of oak leaf clusters typically indicates the number of subsequent awards of the decoration.

Most military awards use bronze, silver, and gold oak leaf clusters. The higher ranking oak leaf clusters are issued in lieu of a greater number of lower ranking clusters, allowing a large number of award annotations to fit on a single ribbon. For instance, five bronze oak leaf clusters would be denoted by one silver and five silver by one gold.

The United States military issues only bronze and silver oak leaf clusters. Gold oak leaf clusters were briefly considered as a device for the Air Medal, but this was not adopted by any of the services. The Air Medal is a military decoration of the United States which was established by Executive Order 9158 signed by Franklin D

In Commonwealth countries a bronze oak leaf signifies a Mention in Despatches, and is worn as an award in its own right, rather than to signify multiple instances of another decoration. Mentioned in Despatches (MID is a Military award for gallantry or otherwise commendable service The Commonwealth equivalent of US oakleaves is a bar to the medal. A medal bar or medal clasp is a thin metal bar attached to the ribbon of a Military decoration, Civil decoration, or other Medal.

In the Second World War, the Knight's Cross of the German Iron Cross could be awarded with the additional distinction of Oak Leaves (mit Eichenlaub). World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including The Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross ( German language: Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes, often simply Ritterkreuz) was a grade of the Iron Cross For other meanings please see Iron Cross (disambiguation The Iron Cross ( was a Military decoration of the Kingdom of Prussia Of the 7,313 awards of the Knight's Cross, only 883 received Oak Leaves.

See also